After Tom and I braved the cold weather to do a bit of shopping, followed by some cleaning -- I found a good cat hair removal gizmo -- I sat down in the living room, found a video on YouTube of a flowing stream accompanied by light classical music. I put that on the TV screen, made myself a cup of half-caff coffee and sat down on the newly de-cat-haired love seat with Sundance. I picked up Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which I am reading for the third or fourth time, and sat back to relax in the comfort of our new home. After a while, Tom came in, plopped down in the armchair and began reading something on his tablet. It was a very domestic scene.
I enjoy John Berendt's writing but at some point remembered that I have two books on the laptop awaiting completion. I put the story of Jim Williams down on the coffee table and brought in the laptop from the study and looked at what I had.
I spent time proofing and editing Except for His Wings. At this point about half of the book is in its [mostly?] final form. The part I was working on has been pretty well worked over already, and I expect the remaining bits to take longer.Having been away from the novel for over a month now, I am pleased to say I think it reads well. It is not like my other novels. I don't mean that those don't read well, but I guess that is for readers to decide. Rather I mean that it is not explicitly religious the way the John of the Cross mystery is, although it has a spiritual point; and although it is odd, it is -- at least in my intention -- surreal rather than tongue-in-cheek quirky the way the WhoVille stories are.
And don't get me started on authorial intent!
3 comments:
I love the cat gif. And please tell us about the cat hair removal gizmo. I use the IKEA sticky rolls and wish I could find something quicker and more efficient.
The cat hair gizmo is an Evercare product. They have the usual sticky tape roller but the one I found also has a brush built into the handle. The brush has thick soft rubber bristles and these help pull up the hair before you roll the sticky tape over it. It is not perfect -- the only perfect way to de-cat-hair anything is to de-cat, and then how empty life would be! -- but it is the best thing I have found yet.
A tip of the hat to Helen who told me to use rubber gloves to clean up cat hair by rubbing the gloved hand across the furniture. This works in the same way as the rubber brush, in case you cannot find the Evercare thing or something like it.
One last note: The winter air is so dry right now that even after the rubber brush rolls the hair up into clumps, the hair tends to pop around and try to stick to things. Spraying with a very light mist before cleaning might help with this.
Helpful hints from Helen with notes by Michael
Wow! Thanks to you and Helen. I'll give the rubber gloves a try (he says as Dudo curls onto his lap pressing snugly against his once-black shirt).
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